'Aap dekh lijiye sabke stats nikalke' - Salman Butt slams PCB over Pakistan's T20 World Cup 2022 squad

When the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 down under, many of the former players and experts criticized the selectors for not giving any weightage to the fragile middle-order. Apart from that there were few others who also accused the board and the Chairman Ramiz Raja for favouritism.

Lately, former skipper Salman Butt has also questioned the board's selection and at the same he also went on to claim that this was not the first time that the PCB is selecting squads for major tournaments without even understanding the potential of the players. He then gave an example of the Men in Green's victorious 2009 T20 World Cup squad selection. 

I don't want to make a controversy but there are some facts: Salman Butt

"I don't want to make a controversy but there are some facts. Shahzaib Hassan had been taken into the squad. His was the biggest jump, so big that at the time the team was in Dubai and so were the selectors. They were actually asking, 'Yaar Shahzaib ko kisine dekha hai khelte hue (Has anyone seen Shahzaib play)?" said Butt on ARY News.

When asked about commenting on Pakistan's class of 2022, Butt said that Shan Masood is the only proper batter after the openers with the ability to negate the pace and bounce in Australia compared to the other batters in the squad.

At the same time, the crickter-turned-cricket pundit also mentioned that one must thoroughly go through the stats of the players who have been selected for the showpiece event down under.

“I have been saying since the past one year that there should be a proper batter after the openers. Even when he did play, he was played in a position that had never trained in his life but even then he gave the result. I actually feel that he can negate the pace and bounce of Australia much better than some of our current players whose job is to just hit. When will we start using these players intelligently,” said Butt. "Aap dekh lijiye sabke stats nikalke", he added.

Ever since the Asia Cup 2022, Pakistan's middle-order has been regularly exposed. Things have been no different in the ongoing home T20Is against England either where both skipperBabar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan have been taking the responsibility of scoring the bulk of runs.